THE SECOND CITY’S ROMEO AND JULIET MUSICAL: THE PEOPLE VS. FRIAR LAURENCE, THE MAN WHO KILLED ROMEO AND JULIET, Second City, at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Writer-director Ron West’s work with Second City was always sharp but not necessarily groundbreaking. But in The Second City’s Romeo and Juliet Musical, written with Phil Swann, West displays some of the fearlessness that eluded him on the main stage. This bawdy revisionist take on Romeo and Juliet–bit player Friar Laurence gets framed for the murders of every Capulet and Montague in Verona–offers a master class on satire. And West makes a variety of subtle references to Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, and, during a lengthy roll call, nearly every major player in the Shakespeare canon.
